1. Field of the Invention
This invention has relation to hair cutting appliances for automatically cutting substantially all of the hair extending from the head of a customer to a uniform length and for automatically disposing of the cut-off hair ends by use of a vacuum.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is known to use a suction tube to extend the hair from the scalp for the purpose of cutting it at a desired length. See U.S. Pat. No. 1,331,218 to Severson, granted in February of 1920, U.S. Pat. No. 4,000,562 to Alevras, granted in January of 1977; U.S. Pat. No. 4,005,526 to Clay, granted in February of 1977; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,030,196 to Koiwa et al, granted in June of 1977.
The present applicant was granted U.S. Pat. No. 4,216,581 in August of 1980, and this patent teaches a novel and effective structure for cutting hair to a predetermined length. The prior art set out in that patent and in the Office Actions and amendments in the file wrapper of that patent form part of the prior art in this application and are incorporated herein by this reference.
The present invention incorporates a modified version of a vacuum-powered shear sold under the trademark KIRBY as a TURBO GROOM MODEL.
The structure of the present invention discloses an even more facile manner of accomplishing its objects than is taught by the prior art.
Neither the inventor nor those in privity with him are aware of any prior art which is closer than that referred to or discussed above, or which anticipates the claims herein.